The Bomber War
Subtitle: the Allied air offensive against Nazi Germany
By: Robin Neillands
Publisher: Barnes & Noble
Published: 2001
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 448
ISBN-13: 9780760765302
Subjects: World War, 1939-1945; British Aerial operations; American Aerial operations; Aerial Bombing; History; Aerial Military operations; American; British
Other titles: Allied air offensive against Nazi Germany
Description: The bomber campaign against Germany is one of the most contentious of World War II. Was anything achieved by the deaths of thousands of German civilians-many of them women and children? Or were all means justified against Nazi Germany? Acclaimed military historian Robin Neillands examines every detail of the allied campaign led by British Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris: the strengths and fundamental flaws, the technical difficulties and developments and, above all, the day-to-day, night-by-night endurance of the crews flying to the limit in discomfort and danger, facing flak and enemy fire. Personal experiences of British, American, Canadian, Australian and other ally fliers play a key part in this account, along with those of German airmen and civilians. Though The Bomber War discusses Guernica and the destruction of Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it concentrates on the European theater, on Germany's air war against the allies - over Warsaw, Rotterdam, London and Coventry-which led the fierce allied raids carried out against Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin and the Ruhr and-most notorious of all-the tremendous destruction of Dresden in the last months of the war. Robin Neillands also examines the complex moral issues involved in the air war, and of the case made against "Bomber" Harris. This is a timely addition to the history of conflict; the age of free-fall bombs has passed, but many veterans-on both sides-are still alive to state their case, and to tell a knew generation what their war was like.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 413-416) and index.
Table of contents: title: The advent of the bomber, 1914-1939; title: Blitzkrieg and the Blitz, 1939-1941; title: The scientific air war, 1939-1942; title: The aircrews, 1940-1943; title: Harris takes command, 1942; title: The defences of Germany, 1939-1942; title: Enter the Mighty Eighth, 1942; title: Towards a combined offensive, August 1942-January 1943; title: Bombing round the clock, 1943; title: The great raids : the dams to Ploesti, August 1943; title: The great raids : Schweinfurt-Regensburg to Peenemunde, 1943; title: The Pointblank directive, June 1943; title: The Battle of Berlin and Big Week, November 1943-March 1944; title: Overture to Overlord, January-June 1944; title: The destruction of Germany, September 1944-February 1945; title: Dresden, February 1945; title: The road to Hiroshima, February-August 1945; title: Moral issues and the Bomber War, 1999-2000.